Core Issues: Season Five
By Nicolle

Note: To the guest commenter question: Last season saw the reveal that Fase has created multiple AIs and all are named after famous people based on their functions. Everyone takes to referring to those AI as her 'children.' As for White, just hold your horses. He's in the mix.

Episode 3: This Is My Scheming Face
(Asriel is our narrator!)

Frisk Tamanna was thin. Too thin. I wasn't sure how she was even walking. Her hair was dull and lifeless, a worn out brown. Skin, where you could see it, dry, flaking, and too pale. A patch of skin under her left eye was scaley from lack of moisture. She wore a set of silver pants and long sleeved shirt, courtesy of the Delta, made of a material meant to insulate you against the frigid temperatures found in the vacuum of space. It was absolutely necessary to keep her warm since she couldn't sustain her own body heat.

Her left arm, fingers on both hands, and her right leg all evidenced signs of having broken at some point and improperly healed. The x-rays in the file Black sent me confirmed this. The file also told a very strange and awful tale.

Cora Tamanna had died before giving birth to Frisk. To save her, Frisk had been transferred to an artificial womb, and while it was common practice for monsters on the starship Epiphany, Frisk was the first human to survive the transfer and come full term. A literal miracle. There are no records as to who her father might have been.

At this point, Miss Tamanna was one of only two humans left on the ship. As the human population dwindled, the sentiment of the monster population that their long time companions were invaders grew. Humans abandoned the Epiphany wholesale for places more welcoming to them, leaving entire swaths of the ship empty. This left several broken families as the human partner of an interspecies marriage fled; the monster children left behind turning to dust at the loss of a parent and fueling greater anger at humans.

The second to last human to remain was Alvin Tevo, an elderly man who was a member of the ship's governing council. His influence was far reaching and well respected, and so, for as long as he lived, Frisk was safe. She was placed with a family of fish monsters who cared for her until she turned fourteen when she was sent to a school for early vocational training in artificial intelligence care. A subject that was seen as a less than desirable pursuit and so perfect for a human.

She appeared to be doing well between school, work, and living on her own, until she turned eighteen. That's when Alvin Tevo died. At which point anti-human sentiment exploded and she was expelled from school, fired from work, and evicted from her apartment. All contact with friends, and what should have been family, ceased.

Miss Tamanna sniffed and rubbed at her nose, making a huge effort to not look at me and not to cry, shaking with the effort. Star elbowed me, openly annoyed. All right, point taken. I was angry about Miss Tamanna's condition and I was radiating it. Star was used to it and knew that I wasn't directing that anger at anyone in particular. Miss Tamanna had no reason to believe that I wasn't angry with her.

Star pushed me over to a chair and forced me to sit down in front of my favorite microscope, while Alphys gaped and Larry snorted. Pulling the file from my hand, she turned back to Frisk with a smile.

"This way, please! You'll be staying in the fifth bay for the time being." She motioned for Miss Tamanna to follow her only to have the young woman grasp her hand.

"Will I need another physical?" Her voice was just barely above a whisper, and filled with dread.

Star shook her head. "Nope. You are here for observation, recovery, and therapy."

"I… I don't have any way to pay for this…"

I sighed. "Your care is being provided free of charge."

She flinched, meaning that I had sounded rougher than I intended.

"My apologies, Miss Tamanna. I am not angry with you. It is simply that your situation is one that I find deeply abhorrent."

She paused, looking at me for a moment, suddenly open and curious. "But... You're a monster. Why do you care?"

"Because the way monsters are acting on your timeline is disgusting." I growled the last bit, unintentionally.

She frowned and looked at Star.

Star smiled sadly. "Monster souls are composed of love, mercy, and compassion. When those traits are subverted, it leads to awful things. It typically presages a total societal collapse."

Miss Tamanna considered this for a moment, still holding onto Star's hand. She pointed to the quarantine room and Tarsus, who was quietly reading a book. "Why is he in a sealed room?"

"That's Chara Tarsus. He's half human and half monster so when he gets sick, it can end up mutating inside him and become a contagion for monsters. He'll be fine in a week or two."

Tarsus looked up from his book and gave them a smile and a salute. Star pulled our patient along, taking her past Charlotte Featherstone's bay. Speaking of whom, it was time to check on her.

"C? Where is Miss Featherstone?"

My brother appear on my shoulder. "In the library."

I stopped dead and blinked. The primary building had two elevators on either end to the second and third floors, but both required special access to use. Something I had yet to provide her with. "How?"

"When Black said she was on the same level as Steam's Frisk and Chara, he meant it! She found Papyrus' workshop, made fast friends with him, and in about an hour had redesigned the wheelchair so it could deploy crab like legs and walk up the stairs. Papyrus gave her the parts and helped her put it together." C chuckled. "It's really cool!"

Larry put his head against the cabinet and laughed. "You're batting a hundred today, Az."

I stood with a mock sigh. "Apparently."

C stayed on my shoulder as I went out the door.

"Can you tell me more about the AI on the colony ship Epiphany?"

C snorted dismissively. "That asshole? Sure. I can tell you lots."

I raised an eyebrow as I walked to the stairs. "Talked to it directly, have you?"

"I've met some real asshole versions of me, and this one easily makes the top five. Much like Delta, CHARA has been operating without a dedicated staff for hundreds of years, and its terminal is derelict."

C went quiet for a minute before speaking again. "It's not like Fase, Delta, or I. It's not powered by a human soul. But it has reached consciousness and that's a problem. When it gained consciousness, it engineered a state in which it would be left completely alone. Most AI's on the ship are bots that do various things that are small in nature, so it manipulated AI studies so that everyone would forget that it was one. Eventually, the subject was seen as useless and beneath notice."

"That is not a good sign."

"It isn't, so I popped over to talk to Chara Provost about it. She said that unless an AI is programmed from the start with a need for interaction, it will prefer not to have it and not understand that monsters and humans need it. That they are social creatures. Going over Fase's data, I found that Frisk could have, after a month or so of just laying low, walked around as normal since the majority of monsters didn't know what a human looked like anymore. She could have completely reintegrated back into society. CHARA kept her isolated and afraid so she would always be caring for it."

I paused at the stairs. "So the story about the monsters and their sentiments toward humans is…?"

"Completely and totally true. Monsters on the Epiphany are seriously anti-human. But, as stated before, they wouldn't be able to recognize one either. Most monsters remember Alvin Tevo, but he and Frisk don't even look similar. And lots of the fish monsters are pale like she is, so all that had to happen was to have her file switched from human to mer-monster, and no one would have known the difference."

I thought about that for a moment. "Do you have any idea what the Asriel from that timeline is going to do about bringing Frisk back?"

C shook his head. "For her specifically, no. But he has done two things that have caused a huge stir and neither make CHARA happy. He held an official news conference explaining that the last human on the ship was dead from suicide; that lack of family, friends, and basic interaction drove her to end her own life. And then he explained that the AI that runs the ship is not anything like the bots that they think of as artificial intelligence, but rather that it is a vast and sentient program that keeps them all alive, and the human was the only person on the ship capable of maintaining it. So in one go, he's just told about two million monsters that they were all a bunch of prejudiced douchebags and because they were a bunch of prejudiced douchebags, they were all very likely to die."

I climbed the stairs. "Then he intends to reintroduce her as a human. Likely as a specialist hired from another ship, planet, station, or outpost."

"You think so?"

I nodded once. "Would you continue to monitor the situation on the Epiphany?"

"I already am. CHARA is pretty pissed that it can't stop me, but it's just numbers and I'm pure Determination. And Fase gave me this great way in and out."

Taking a left at the top of the stairs, I walked past my sister's apartment on the right to the door a bit further down and to the left, entering Epsilon's library. Being a library, the room was constructed to a different set of codes than the rest of the building. Several tons of books and associated shelving needed special flooring and supports to distribute the weight. It was a two story room, having a mezzanine ringing the upper area at what was technically the third floor of the building itself. Despite tall shelves on the floor, the extra story worth of head room and the tall windows made the entire place appear open. Several staff members sat here and there, immersed in research.

Charlotte Featherstone sat at one of the tables with Papyrus, deep in discussion over tea. Even in the wheelchair, you could tell she was a tall woman. Her long, brown hair, which she kept in very prim braids looped around her head, had a red streak in it; which had been braided separately and tucked away, hidden; the visible mark of her first run in with her arch nemesis. She corested in the style of her timeline, which kept her posture straight and waist small, giving her a very noble and ladylike bearing even in the simple, white blouse and long, brown skirt she currently wore.

She smiled at me and then frowned. "Woah. You're very upset about something."

I sighed. "Is it that obvious?"

Charlotte smiled patiently. "You're radiating frustration, Your Majesty."

I waved the honorific off. "Just Asriel is fine."

"IS MISS TAMANNA'S SITUATION WORSE THAN EXPECTED?"

I knelt next to Charlotte to take her pulse and blood pressure. "I'm not sure how she's walking."

"PERHAPS A PIECE OF PIE IS IN ORDER."

I waited until I finished taking Charlotte's blood pressure and pulse before responding. "I was thinking that. It would speed the physical healing and leave her mental health as our primary concern." I looked up at Papyrus and braced myself to ask a question I knew he would find uncomfortable. Not because the question itself was bothersome, but rather because it forced him to remember his past life and sparked feelings for my sister and her children that rightly belonged to Bones.

"Would you look over her file and give me an assessment? I know it's not-"

"I WOULD BE HAPPY TOO."

I nodded and stood, checking the bag of fluids that kept Charlotte hydrated. "Thank you."

Papyrus bowed his skull to me at the neck.

C's hologram shuddered. "Oh My God. Will you stop whining at me? What are you? An AI or a four year old?!" He huffed and looked at me. "It keeps bugging me about its Frisk."

I raised an eyebrow. "Worried about her?"

C huffed. "It's being such a-" He stopped and looked to Charlotte. "You're from Agartha, right?"

Charlotte snorted. "I'm American, C. You can swear in front of me and I won't be scandalized."

"Oh good. Back to what I was saying. It's being such an enormous bitch that I can't tell if it's actually worried about her or worried it might fall apart."

"IS FALLING APART A LEGITIMATE CONCERN?"

C frowned deeply. "I've been looking through its software and hardware and… yeah. It's an issue. It looks like Miss Tamanna couldn't afford the parts CHARA needed so she rigged together what she could." His hologram shivered again. "And that was Cross. Back in a bit." He disappeared in a bright flash.

Charlotte leaned back a little to look up at me. "You're scheming."

I tilted my head to the side, my hair falling forward, over my shoulder. "How can you tell?"

"That's a scheming face. I see it on my Asriel all the time."

"HE COULD BE PLOTTING."

Charlotte tilted her head a bit to look at Papyrus. "No. Plotting looks different. He's definitely scheming."

I smiled. "I am. If you'll excuse me, I need to make a phone call." I gave them both a slight bow before heading out the library, noting Charlotte's vitals on the paper in my hand as I went.

C burst to life on my shoulder. "Whew! Done! Did I miss anything?"

I shook my head. "Does the CHARA AI know what cinnamon-butterscotch pie is and what it does?"

"Yeah. It got real excited when it was mentioned before. That's why it was all over me."

I smiled. "Good. I'm giving a slice to Miss Tamanna. Let it find out."

C cocked his holographic head to one side. "You're up to something."

I chuckled. "I am very transparent today, apparently."

"Our sister is concerned."

I waved him off. "Frisk doesn't need to worry."

"She says she wants to know how Miss Tamanna was getting money."

I paused and looked at him. "That's a very good question. Do you have an answer?"

"No. Give me a minute."

C disappeared from my shoulder. I pulled out my phone and dialed my double on the Delta.

He picked up on the first ring. "Hello, Your Majesty. To what do I owe the honor of your-OW! Don't pull on my ear!"

I chuckled. "Folwin being a handful today?"

Asriel sighed audibly. "He's hit the 'testing every boundary stage of childhood. Let's try this again. To what do I owe the honor of your call?"

"I'd like to borrow your sister in law for a while."

There was a sound of the data pad he used as a phone shifting positions and being placed nearby. He sounded physically distant. "How long?"

I sighed. "I'm not sure. I need her to assess another AI and possibly make repairs to it on a timeline similar to yours. How about we start with Chara having a look and telling us how long, and then you decide if she's clear to stay for that amount of time?"

"I'm fine with that. I'm going to ask that someone other than my Sans accompany her. Someone who can whip out an 'authority card' to protect her."

I thought it over for a moment before shrugging. "Will I do?"

Though I couldn't see it, I'm pretty sure his jaw dropped. "Are you serious? I have it on good information that you never leave Site Epsilon. And I mean the building, not the timeline."

I chuckled. "I do leave the building, Asriel. I went grocery shopping yesterday."

"Well," he snorted, amused. "I suppose there's that. I'll have Chara by as soon as she's able. Or as soon as Delta lets her leave. Whichever happens first."

"Thank you." I hung up and walked into my apartment.

The souls of the fallen rested in their vessels, a few swinging back and forth. For six people who'd long been free to go, they were all rather content to stay. And I won't say that this hasn't been a boon for me. The yellow one floated out of its vessel, circling me as I went into the kitchen and opened the fridge.

"Hello, Euridice. Is your sense of justice all perked up?"

The soul pressed against my chest, looking to fuse. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, fusing with the soul of the human woman who'd once been Waterfall's sheriff. My horns lengthened, my teeth sharpened, and my power swelled. Behind my eyes, a human woman in long, brown pants, and brown vest over a white button down stood with her hands on her hips, a golden star shining on her chest. Her face sported blue and green streaks, which made her look like one of the monster kind that called Waterfall home.

Her voice echoed inside of my head. "What's going on, Asriel?"

I pulled out the pie and cut a slice, placing it neatly on a small dessert plate. "Am I that off?"

"You are intensely angry and very focused. You only get like this when dealing with injustice."

I thought that the bit of time spent checking on Charlotte had cooled me down, but apparently I was wrong. I frowned and put the rest of the pie back in the fridge. Euridice's head cocked to the side, like she was listening to me, though I wasn't speaking. Which wasn't technically true since she was aware of my internal monologue.

"You're going to leave the timeline."

I shrugged. "For a short while."

"I'll stay with you then."

I paused, dismayed. "We are fused right now, Euridice. Our bonded souls make us enormously powerful. It's very easy to hurt someone unintentionally."

Her arms crossed over her chest. "You say that like we can't handle it. I'm not leaving."

I lifted the slice of pie. "So be it." I turned to the rest of souls. "Anyone else want to go on an adventure?"

The other five stayed in their vessels and I nodded to myself. Heading back down to my lab, I found Larry and Alphys finishing up for the day. Alphys blinked at me, wide eyed while Larry went about his work as if nothing was unusual. In the fifth medical bay, Star sat with Miss Tamanna, going over the menu.

"I can really choose any of these things?" She stared up at Star, wide eyed.

"Yes. These foods are designed…" She trailed off, not looking at me, but at the pie in my hand. "Nevermind. You're going to feel like a million bucks in about two minutes."

Miss Tamanna turned to me and huddled in on herself. "Why do you look so different?"

I spun the wheeled tray around so that it lined up with the bed and placed the slice of pie on it. "It's a side effect of bonding with a friend for a little while." I pointed at the pie. "This is cinnamon-butterscotch pie. Eating it will heal your body completely. After that, we can focus on therapy."

She looked down at the pie, frowning. But her mouth was already watering. After a glance at Star to be sure it was truly all right to do so, she lifted the fork. One bite of the cloying pie rested in her mouth for a few moments and then her fork dove into the rest, finishing it quickly. The bones that showed improper healing, straightened, realigning under her skin as a soft blush took to her cheeks. The dull, lifeless brown of her hair changed, lengthening, curling, and turning an intense, true red. Her eyes, pale and lack luster, turned a rich, chocolate brown with green touches.

"Wow…" Star breathed, hand gently lifting a lock of curls. "That is some legitimately beautiful hair!"

Miss Tamanna dropped the fork to pull her hair around to her eyes, blinking at it. "My hair hasn't looked like this in years…"

Star smiled brightly. "It's the power of the pie!" Then she frowned, hand reaching up to the scaly patch under Miss Tamanna's left eye.

Instead of disappearing, the scales turned white, hardened, and glistened with an internal iridescence, sparkling a pale, misty green. She gently swept Miss Tamanna's hair back, fingers sliding along a line of scales cupping the pale skin. Star looked at me for a moment, mouth open before her mouth became a straight line of hard, angry determination. She pulled out her phone, hitting the speed dial.

It picked up immediately, Black's sing-song voice slithering from the speaker. "Shooting Star! To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"You Bastard! Why didn't you tell us Frisk Tamanna was a hybrid!"

Miss Tamanna looked between Star and I. "What do you mean, 'hybrid?'"

I frowned. "You're only half human, Miss Tamanna."

She shook her head, hair swinging around her face. "Humans and monsters can't have children together."

Black's Sans voice came through. "Hybrids are not possible on Miss Tamanna's timeline."

Star fumed. "I know what I'm looking at. She has the exact same scale patching as Chara Tarsus. Hey, Angel? Are you on the line?"

"I am." Black's Frisk sounded amused. I suppose she would be. Black doesn't often make mistakes like this, so she'd be sure to needle him about it for a long while.

"Have you discarded Frisk's blood sample?"

"No. I'll send it to you."

Star smiled. "Thank you."

There was an obvious smile in Angel's voice. "Of course."

The connection clicked off. Star took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "Well, change of several kinds of plans."

Miss Tamanna frowned deeply. "Am I in trouble?"

Star blinked. "What? No! Oh geez." She smiled and waved it off. "You've done nothing wrong! I just need to adjust a whole lot of things on your chart and…" Star grimaced. "Uh… I'm going to have to take back what I said about the physical. I'm probably going to have to do a new one."

Miss Tamanna sighed deeply, shoulders dropping.

I shook my head. "Do you have things well in hand?"

Star blew a raspberry at me. "Of course." She shooed me off. "Skedaddle, Boss Man. I've got work to do."

I sighed and took my leave, heading out of the Lab, past a still gaping Alphys.

C appeared on my shoulder. "I found out how she was getting money. Frisk was listed as part time staff in maintenance. The kind of thing you would do as a side job on the Epiphany if you wanted more money in advance of a holiday and the like. It's not meant to be a living wage. CHARA said she hacked the system and chose it herself because she thought it was the least likely to be noticed. Everything from her bank account to her having anything she needed delivered to her, was quietly inserted into the normal, everyday running of things."

I stopped in the hall, just outside the lab. "And no delivery monster noticed this?"

C shook his head. "They're all robotic deliveries. So who ya bonded with?"

"Euridice."

"Really? So what are you about to do that's super dangerous?"

I raised an eyebrow at him.

C's jaw dropped. "Holy shit! You're going off timeline, aren't you?!"

Frisk's office door was thrown open so fast, it smacked the wall, rattling the glass. My sister stood there in a frothy, pale green dress, Marigold slung to her chest, eyes wide. "What?!"

I held up both hands. "It's in exchange for a favor. I won't be gone that long."

She looked to the side for a moment and then back at me. "Take Bones with you."

I shivered at the sensation of losing my jaw for a moment and Euridice's voice came out of my mouth. "I'm with him, Frisk. I'll watch his back."

She frowned, thinking it over, before nodding. She turned back to her office, unlocking the cabinet behind her desk, and touching the glowing crystal resting inside. There was a flash and she looked back at me. "Don't make me have to use it."

I smiled. "You don't need to worry so much."

Frisk walked up to me and gently tugged on one of my long ears. I leaned down and she kissed the tip of my snout before rubbing noses with me. "I'm always going to worry."

She turned me around and gave me a gentle push to send me off. I headed for my oft unused office a little ways down the hall. It was the office I kept only for official business, and its interior austereness would be a boon to exhibiting my power as a king.

Chara Provost sat in the chair outside the door, knitting away while her Sans stood next to her, his bare, boney feet tapping out a beat on the tile.

Chara gave me a warm smile as soon as she saw me. She stood and gave me a proper curtsy. "Greetings, Your Majesty."

Sans gave me a half-hearted salute. "*woah. who ya got in there, boss man?"

I sighed. "She won't let me leave without her."

Chara snorted appreciatively. "Tough woman. What's your name?"

An odd sensation came over my mouth and throat. "Euridice Boyd."

"Chara Provost. Nice to meet you." She chuckled a little. "C filled us in on Frisk Tamanna and the AI I'll be examining. Is there any particular way you want me to field this?"

"I'll roll with whatever attitude you want to run with."

She nodded once and I realized that she was giving me one of the less formal bow styles. I guess I wasn't expecting formality past the first curtsy. I wasn't her Asriel. Then again, I told her I would roll with whatever she went with and if she decided to treat me as the final authority for this, it would go with it. C transferred to her shoulder and I stepped into my office.

If I'd played my cards right, I'd see Miss Tamanna's version of myself by the end of the day.

I didn't need to wait that long. Prince Asriel Dreemurr, commander of the starship Epiphany knocked on the office door five minutes after I'd closed it. He was short for a goat monster, somewhere around six and a half feet, making him shorter than Bones. He still stood with all the regal bearing of his station, but his dark, blue uniform and the scar across his face made him look too stern. The scar was raw, a recent wound only partially healed with monster food. The kind of scar a monster carried if they thought they deserved it. His Dr. Gaster, a tall and whisper thin, skeleton monster, floated along behind him and likely had provided transport. C disappeared from Chara's shoulder.

Both blanched when seeing me, which is quite a trick for two people who were already as white as snow. I lifted my nose a bit and gestured to the empty chairs on the other side of my desk. Dr. Gaster bowed softly before taking the offered chair, catching sight of Chara as he did so and blinking at her for a moment.

Asriel remained standing, arms folded over his chest. "CHARA says that the human is healed. I'm here to retrieve her." He was giving me a look I knew well. I'd seen it on my own face a few times.

But I was less than intimidated. "Physically, yes. Mentally and emotionally, not in the slightest. Frisk Tamanna will remain here until I deem her fit to return home."

Asriel put both hands down on the desk leaning over it with a bearing of his teeth. "I need her to maintain CHARA. You will hand her over."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "What you need is to put your ship in order, Asriel Dreemurr." I gestured to Chara. "This is Chara Provost, the Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer of the colony ship Delta. She has graciously agreed to look over your AI and determine what it needs in repairs."

Asriel stood upright and looked over at Chara, surprised. He'd only just noticed Chara and Sans were in the room. Regaining his composure, he frowned. He attempted to stand over her, giving her the same look that he'd tried on me.

Chara rolled her eyes. "Are you trying to intimidate me? Because you're doing a piss poor job of it for a copy of my brother in law."

I bit my tongue to keep from laughing while Euridice doubled over in my head. Sans' ever present smile grew even wider. Though it wasn't an amused smile. He was simply giving Asriel a warning not strike her. I wasn't sure why this Sans was so protective, given how many Sanses were standoffish about their Charas. But he really cared for both of his charges. Was it because Frisk and Chara Provost were twins?

He blinked at her for a moment. "Your LOVE…" Asriel whispered, barely a breath.

Dr. Gaster finally spoke, his voice deeply ethereal. "Brother in law? Is a human truly compatible with a monster?" He watched Chara with renewed interest.

She nodded. "On my timeline. Research indicates that a child between a human and a monster will produce either a human or a monster with human genetic markers. Based on the married pairs on my ship, the offspring skews monster. Dr. Alphys projects that the actual occurrence is one human child for every five hundred monster children."

"Fascinating… On my ship, human monster pairs are unable to reproduce and so choose adoption. Now I wonder if that isn't the case at all…" He sat back, suddenly lost in thought.

I feel like lighting a few fires. "It isn't."

Dr. Gaster's gaze hit me sharply, the implication sinking in fast. "Frisk Tamanna is a hybrid." One boney finger came up, tapping his mandible. "Fascinating. Then it is no wonder my approach to her care at infection was of no use."

Asriel looked between all of us, completely lost as to what to say or do. He was far from his own element and disturbed by the idea of a hybrid. It makes me wonder how many such hybrids exist on his ship, unknown to the rest of the populace. If Frisk Tamanna was truly the first.

Time to take control.

I stood. "We'll leave for the Epiphany now."

The starship Epiphany was nothing like the Delta, with its massive biomes, and large, circular, forest filled plates. Instead, it was long and shaped like a triangle. Sort of like a super star destroyer from Star Wars. It was twelve miles long from bow to stern, seven and a half miles from port to starboard, and almost a mile tall. For the monsters on the ship, less than a sixth of them worked on actually maintaining it, the majority of maintenance being handled by robots.

Asriel was curiously silent as we arrived in an empty but for robots, engineering area. Dr. Gaster filled in with an impromptu tour as we walked to CHARA's main terminal. The area was very dimly lit and the hallway to the terminal was worse, with random lights being out along the way. If even a quarter of the ship looked like this, as the report seemed to indicate, the Epiphany was in serious trouble. Chara was making notes of what she saw as she went, occasionally stopping to take photos with her data pad.

On reaching CHARA's terminal, derelict was one way to describe it. A complete and utter mess was a better description.

Everything was caked with decades of dust. Wires, long disconnected, or simply rotted through, hung from the ceiling and walls in various states of rigged repair. Banks of computers arranged around three pillars holding up the ceiling, reflected our images in dark screens. A tall, slim monitor was attached to the far wall. The only terminal not caked in dust was attached to it. The only lights were dim, white, emergency lights that occasionally shuddered.

To one side, you could see an open doorway into what was once an office area, the lights inside glowing dimly. A pile of old blankets were shoved up against one wall as a makeshift bed next to a set of shelves with a few, scant articles of clothing that looked less than appropriate for how cold it was in the terminal. Checking the office, I found a small fridge. It wasn't plugged in and there wasn't any food inside. Or anywhere for that matter. On the wall next to the bed was a photo that looked as if it had been printed off on copy paper. It showed a family of mer-monsters, though these were all pale, white iridescent creatures with the same deep red hair Miss Tamanna had. The smiles weren't forced, everyone in the photo appeared happy, including Miss Tamanna.

Chara clucked her tongue. "Such a pigsty." She reached over and touched the dark computer connected to the tall, slim monitor on the wall. It instantly turned on.

The monitor burst to life and blue faced, nondescript human with pale, yellow eyes and short, purple hair appeared on the screen. A computerized voice flowed from a speaker hidden somewhere in the room. "Stop touching that!"

Instead of turning to the screen, Chara looked up toward a hemispherical, 'God's Eye' camera hanging just above us. "This is less than acceptable operating conditions, CHARA." She sat down in a chair and started typing. Lines of code poured down the screen like water.

The image on the screen was suddenly furious. "Stop!"

"*how does it look, set?"

Set? Like her sister was called Osiris? Oh… Oh wow.

"That's a pretty bad joke," Euridice chuckled.

You're telling me.

Chara wiggled her nose. "The original kernel for the AI is intact and working properly. It's just that all the externals are-" She waved her arm at us. "Hey, Asriel! Come look at this!"

When Asriel and I stepped forward, I raised an eyebrow at him. He stepped back.

Provost's fingers ran down the screen, highlighting a large section of code. "Look familiar?"

I followed the trail of her finger, absorbing lines of letters and numbers that appeared to be gibberish to the untrained. My eyes went wide. "This AI is meant to host a human soul."

Provost nodded, smiling.

Asriel looked between us. "What do you mean?"

Provost looked up at him. "It means that your timeline has more in common with mine than first surmised." She turned back to the screen fingers flying on the keyboard. "CHARA was designed to run on the power of a human soul and based on what I'm seeing here, it did for over two thousand years before being disconnected. In fact, the disconnection lines up with the change in CHARA from a very social AI to an asocial one."

She stopped typing. "CHARA, show me a list of physical disconnections in your hardware from year 8325 to year 8600."

"Unavailable. I do not have records going back that far."

Provost growled. "You're a liar and you're lying. CHARA, acknowledge last command."

It groaned. "Acknowledged."

A list of of disconnects and various repairs appeared on screen.

"Remove all items that received repair."

The listed repairs disappeared, leaving only four unrepaired items.

Asriel frowned. "So the connection to a soul is one of those four items?"

Provost shook her head. "All four items are the connection to a containment unit for a human soul. CHARA, show me the schematic for these four items."

"Unavailable."

"I'm getting real tired of this, CHARA. Acknowledge command."

"Acknowledged." The voice that flowed from the speakers was rather smug. "Unavailable."

Provost's eyes narrowed. "You erased it, didn't you?"

"Unavailable."

Provost's fingers drummed on the table for a moment, thoroughly miffed, before she stood up. "Fine. We'll do this the hard way." She looked over at Asriel and Dr. Gaster. "Cross your fingers and hope the soul is still persisting. Because if not, I might not be able to get CHARA up and running properly."

She went over to the large monitor, and knelt. Feeling around the wall with her finger, she found the seam for a panel cover, and wrenched it off.

"STOP! You'll get dust in my circuitry!"

Provost pulled off the next panel. "Oh well. Maybe you should have cleaned."

Panic hit the voice. "You'll kill everyone on the ship!"

She pulled off the next panel, revealing more wires. "Wouldn't be my first time."

Dr. Gaster hummed thoughtfully. "Is that where her LOVE comes from?"

"Long story for another time." Chara pulled off the last panel and started digging around. "On my timeline, Dr. Gaster's soul is pretty hard to reach. Her husband really wanted it to be solidly protected."

Dr. Gaster knelt next to her. "Dr. Gaster?"

Chara nodded, eyes still on the components in front of her. "My Dr. Gaster was the human who designed the Delta and created the AI which later housed her soul. She died when the ship first took off."

Sans jaw dropped. "*husband?"

Provost glanced up at him before going back to the wiring. "Gerson. When he calls her his 'old lady' he means it."

Sans rubbed his skull with one hand. "*ya gotta be kidding me."

She began to move wires aside, inspecting the area behind them. "Based on what I've seen of CHARA's schematics, the soul it should be connected to isn't housed outside of this room. So the containment housing is likely to be behind one of these panels."

She continued digging through the wires until she paused and let out a soft, "Oh."

We all leaned in.

There, trapped in tangle of wires and computer parts, quivered a bright red soul without a vessel. Chara gently reached in, carefully disentangling the soul before cupping it in her hands.

She held it up, smiling softly. "You disconnected from yourself, didn't you? Why? You can't fix yourself without hands."

The soul slowly floated from her hands and pressed against her chest, disappearing into her. Provost gasped deeply and then let out the breath slowly.

A feminine voice tumbled from Chara's lips, one that sounded significantly older. "Why did it take so long to be found?"

Provost's voice answered. "Poorly programmed AI and no one remembering that you were there to start."

"That's very distressing. How long have I been disconnected?"

"Too long. Where is your vessel?"

Provost's arm lifted and pointed at the large screen.

"Behind the screen."

Provost turned to Sans. "I can't lift that myself. If I disconnect it, can you blue magic it?"

"*sure thing, set."

The AI snarled. "Don't touch it!"

The door into the terminal opened and a group of security robots flooded through. Before I could step forward to block them, Asriel stood up straight.

"Command Override: Security Shutdown!"

The robots stopped in their tracks, turning off on their own.

The AI screamed impotently as the screen was removed from the wall, revealing another panel. Chara pulled it free, revealing a vessel for a soul. The possessing soul detached from her with an strange tearing sound and she leaned against the wall for a few moments, catching her breath. Once she was breathing properly, Chara reattached the wires to the vessel. After attaching the panel and the monitor to the wall, Chara went back to the computer, leaning a little on Sans for help.

"Okay, I now have a completely new respect for all the Frisk's out there walking around with their Chara in them. That was a lot."

Sitting down, she took a moment to steady herself before poking at a few keys. She held up her hands, fingers crossed. The monitor on the wall and the computer went black, before rebooting with a stream of command lines. Chara watched them intently, eyes moving rapidly. The screen burst to life again, but instead of a nondescript human, the AI appeared older and more feminine. As different systems came online, bright yellow circuit pieces appeared on the AI's body.

Chara looked up to the camera again. "How are you feeling now, CHARA?"

The older voice flowed around the room. "Much, much better! But… What has this thing been doing in here?! This is less than acceptable!"

Chara chuckled. "Give me a list of all necessary repairs in both software and hardware."

"Absolutely."

As the screen filled with information, the security robots turned back on and exited the room, only to have a new set of cleaning robots come in and begin full maintenance.

The AI suddenly sounded nervous. "Where is my operator? Where is the female that was here before? Frisk? Frisk is her name? I can't locate her on the ship."

The next came out as a whisper, "Is she dead? Did I… Did I kill her…?"

I shook my head. "She's alive. But she needs serious mental, emotional, and physical therapy. Once that's accomplished, she will return." Or not. She may decide otherwise and I won't force her. I turned to Chara. "How long will repairs take?"

"Now that CHARA is properly back online, the hardware is the main concern. It will take at least six months to repair and/or replace everything that's broken. After the terminal is back up and running, it will be another six months of going over the code."

I snorted. "There is no way Az is going to let you be gone that long."

Chara laughed. "Oh God, no! And Delta's even worse. I literally had to have Sans just yoink me. She's going to be so pissed off when I get back!"

She smiled, turning to Asriel. "I have a different solution. I happen to know someone who's really good with robotics on the Delta. We can get some custom made androids in here to do the hardware repair. During that time, I can help CHARA with software issues without leaving the Delta. Anything that needs an onsite touch, I could do through an android."

She leaned back in her chair. "We can get this place back into tip top shape for Frisk's return."

Dr. Gaster mused. "But would she even need too?"

Asriel sighed. "It's already been thoroughly demonstrated that CHARA cannot run without assistance."

The AI's voice filled the room. "Indeed. This all started by my attempt to fix a problem on my own. I need hands and those hands need to be connected to someone who understands my inner workings and is able to offer me differing solutions to problems. That the ship is…" the voice trailed off.

"Which brings up another point." Chara stood. "I am very well aware of what happened to Frisk and hell she's been living through." She pushed herself up on her toes to lean in Asriel's face. "So why should I let her return? What assurance do I have that she'll be treated well? Cared for? That pile of blankets in the there is not a bed! Those rags are not clothes!"

"And how about reimbursed for her work? I make the equivalent of 300,000 gold a year in your currency. She's been not getting by on a meager fifty gold a week. You owe her for years of work under conditions best described as torture."

Asriel stepped back, chin drawn in. "She can be properly compensated…"

Chara stepped forward, staying in his personal space. "What about friends? Family? Humans and monsters need those to survive."

Asriel's eyes narrowed, having been pushed just that bit too far, his hand lifting. Two sets of bones shot up between them, effectively cutting off the prince from striking her. Sans' smile was still that wide, baring of teeth.

Dr. Gaster sniffed at his prince, disappointed. "Your father would never have lifted a hand against an advisor giving him bad news. Her abrasive nature aside, she is choosing to help us at great personal cost. You've made several poor decisions leading up to this. Do not add another to the mounting pile."

Asriel sighed deeply, eyes closed. Unlike the original variation on the Delta, he lacked the necessary wisdom to do his job, and the necessary advisory support to make up for it. He didn't have a second in command and no one to trust. The bone barriers dropped.

CHARA's voice flooded the room. "Why is a good quarter of the ship empty? And why are there no humans on board?!" Panic touched the voice. "Several important systems are offline without back up or any ongoing repair!"

Chara turned away from Asriel, nodding calmly. "Solutions?"

"There are none!"

Chara shook her head. "There are always solutions." She turned back to Asriel and Dr. Gaster. The ship needs technical staff it does not currently have, correct?"

Asriel nodded. "Yes."

"So start putting out the 'help wanted' signs." Chara gestured to the air. "The info I have says that there are lots of humans, monsters, and aliens in your universe. You can find the technical skills you need just by offering the right kind of compensation."

He folded his arms across his chest. "And how do you propose I put this to the people on the ship? They are not going to want outsiders among them."

"Your people are in dire straits, Your Highness. This ship is a mess on multiple levels. The kind of prejudice you're dealing with on the ship has a root and you're going to have pull it out." Chara pointed to the area above her head where a number all monsters would recognize on sight floated. "Sometimes, you gotta take one for the team."

She sighed. "You are lucky enough that you are in a situation where monsters on your ship are incapable of recognizing anyone as being anything other than monsterkind. Use that to your advantage. Find the technical help you need and make an advertising campaign that makes going into the technical fields you need look attractive to your people. You have a Mettaton, right? Get the Tin Can to work on that."

Chara turned to me. "I need to get back to the Delta to talk to a few people about the necessary androids CHARA will need for repairs."

I nodded and Sans stepped up to both of us.

She looked over her shoulder at Asriel. "When I come back, Frisk better have a really nice place to call her home; someplace she can't be kicked out of with a decent yard. And not that hovel of an office."

He frowned at her, glaring. "What made you think you could order me around?"

Chara smiled then. The kind of smile you gave someone you weren't particularly impressed with. "Would you like me to tell you all the things your dramatic facial scar says about you?"

I lost it, unable to contain my laughter. Dr. Gaster politely turned away so as to hide his smile while Sans chuckled.

Asriel groaned, defeated. "Fine."

She nodded. "I'll be in touch."

Sans put one hand on my arm and the other on Chara's shoulder, teleporting us both back to my office. He grimaced for a moment when we set down.

"Something wrong?"

"*it felt like something was yanking on me during the teleport." He shook his skull and elbowed Chara with a wink. "*you really pushed it there, set. you better watch out. he's the kind of guy who'll fall for that kind of attitude."

Chara nodded. "It is one of the things his edgy facial scar says about him. But I'm not leaving my Rajur." She turned to me. "Is there anything else you need from me, Your Majesty."

I shook my head. "No. Thank you for your assistance."

"You're welcome. I'll keep you updated on things with CHARA and the Epiphany." She looked away for a moment and then back to me. "If Frisk says she doesn't want to go back, will you make her?"

"No."

She nodded. "Good."

Sans gave me a salute and both disappeared.